He is the heir to the Heidegger Marquis family and an Esper with the ‘enhancement’ ability.

With his black hair, slightly tanned skin, and red eyes, he was also famous as a knight who wielded two swords.

It’s said that the swords enhanced by Lambert could cut through almost anything in this world.

He was known as ‘the man who doesn’t need the battle of spear and shield’.

While the taciturn Lambert might seem better than the rudely speaking Baron… in my opinion, they were both cut from the same cloth.

Although Lambert could also move quickly by enhancing his legs, he had never taken me along.

And that guy…

Just as I was thinking that far, one of the Espers sprawled nearby spoke to me.

“…You’re Guide Yerena, right?”

“Yes!”

It’s been nearly 3 months since I joined the Allen Knights. I’m the Yerena who’s always left behind, that’s right.

“If it’s not too presumptuous, would you like me to take you back to the Center?”

“Wow, are you serious?”

“Yes. Thanks to the Allen Knights, our knights didn’t die. As a way of repayment… I’m sorry if I’ve overstepped.”

The Esper who said this gave a friendly smile. I didn’t know which family he was from, but I liked him.

“I would be so grateful if you could take me to the Center!”

“Alright. Then please wait a moment. I’ll move our knights first and come back.”

“Yes, yes!”

I let out a sigh of relief.

It would take a full three hours to walk from here to the Center, so waiting a little seemed like no big deal.

At that moment, the man who was returning to his knights suddenly seemed to remember something and looked back at me.

“…Oh, by the way, did Benjamin not deploy today either?”

Benjamin Vicente.

The Knight Commander of the Allen Knights, heir to the Vicente Ducal family, and the number one ranked Esper in the Empire.

I hadn’t seen that man for a month now.

And he was also an Esper I had barely seen during the 3 months since I joined.

Should I say the longest I saw him was when we first met and exchanged greetings?

Even then, it was only for about 30 minutes.

I had barely even conversed with Benjamin.

He never deployed unless an S-class monster appeared.

That’s why people secretly pointed fingers at Benjamin, calling him ‘arrogant’.

But the reason they couldn’t openly disparage him was because everything about Benjamin was perfect.

Benjamin’s appearance was so beautiful that rumors circulated that it wasn’t human, and his body was exceptionally good despite not being a sword-wielding Esper.

Moreover, he was the heir to the Vicente Ducal family, a powerful house that even the imperial family couldn’t touch.

Picking a fight or quarrel with Benjamin meant putting one’s life on the line.

Because he was always in seclusion, even his abilities weren’t known in detail.

His only known ability was ‘insight’, which allowed him to see through the weaknesses of everything.

‘But Benjamin actually hides abilities far more terrifying than insight.’

Having read the novel, I knew all of Benjamin’s secrets.

Anyway, I didn’t want to get too involved with Benjamin.

The Benjamin I read about in the novel was dangerous and also the character who confused the female lead the most.

I was already living as Yerena, destined for a bad end, so there was no need to get involved with the most dangerous character.

‘Let’s just not run into him until I leave this place.’

I didn’t want to die a dog’s death here.

***

After arriving at the Center with the help of another knightly order, I lay down on the bed in my room.

Chelsea, the capital of the Eldora Empire.

There existed the ‘Chelsea Center’, named after the capital.

This place, which managed all aspects of Guides and Espers, also took care of Guides and Espers who had nowhere else to go.

That applied to me too, who had lost a place to stay after being sold by my parents. Sigh.

If there was one fortunate thing, it was that the room given to me wasn’t too bad.

“At least it’s much better than the studio apartment where I used to study for the civil service exam.”

I recalled the place where I lived before possessing Yerena.

That tiny studio could only fit a small bed and a desk, as small as a palm.

The walls were so thin that if I farted, someone would stick a post-it note on my door.

「Hey, could you please stop making those disgusting sounds?」

Hey. Farting is a bodily function, you know? It’s not disgusting, for crying out loud.

“Hah… I thought I had said goodbye to that kind of life after passing the civil service exam.”

To think I’d be possessing Yerena—who dies after briefly substituting the female lead’s role of calming down the Allen Knights.

Life seemed truly bizarre.

In the novel, the day Yerena died was one of those days when gates were proliferating rapidly in the Pandora Forest.

At that time, S-class monsters suddenly appeared in large numbers, causing all Espers to struggle.

The Allen Knights, known as mad dogs for never letting go of their prey once bitten, were no exception.

Baron and Lambert also suffered critical injuries.

Amidst everyone being wounded, Benjamin did not appear.

Yerena dies, killed by a monster while desperately guiding in that battlefield.

And not just dying, but being torn to pieces.

Until Yerena breathed her last, Baron and Lambert did not save her.

The reason was that their attention was stolen by the female lead.

The day Yerena died was also the day the female lead debuted as a Guide.

She, who had awakened late, was deployed to a scene where almost all Guides had been annihilated.

Of course, the knights of the Allen Knights weren’t distracted by the female lead for no reason, just because she was pretty.

There was a clear reason for it.

It was because she reminded them of ‘someone’.

Benjamin only appears after Yerena’s death and deals with the rampaging monsters one by one.

Unbelievably, he alone kills all those monsters that others had been struggling with just moments ago.

Then, looking at Yerena’s cold corpse, he mutters softly.

“The ugly doll has died.”

It was an emotionless, cold statement.

Ugly doll. For some reason, Benjamin called Yerena that.

And it was then that Benjamin finally laid eyes on the newly appeared female lead. It was a moment when a strange light flickered in Benjamin’s previously emotionless eyes.

‘If that bastard had come earlier, Yerena wouldn’t have died.’

Benjamin probably arrived late because he didn’t care whether people lived or died.

It was obvious! Even now, he hardly participated in battles, no matter who died.

Anyway, Benjamin had been missing for a month now.

No one at the Center knew Benjamin’s whereabouts.

With Benjamin absent, gates were appearing in the Pandora Forest almost every day.

The fortunate thing was that, so far, only A-class monsters had appeared…

But I had a feeling that the day Yerena would die wasn’t far off.

‘I need to get out of here before that. But how?’

Of course, I could quit being a Guide altogether. There was no compulsion in that.

The problem was the money Yerena’s parents had received from the Center.

If I left the Center without repaying that money, I might be branded as a wanted person.

To repay that money with a Guide’s salary, I’d have to work for several more decades…

Moreover, rumors were circulating that the Center was cutting salaries due to financial difficulties.

As if to prove those rumors, salaries had been delayed until the Center Director was replaced!

I didn’t mind much else, but the delayed salaries angered me. If I could, I’d want to grab the Center Director by the collar.

The funny thing is that the salaries of S-class or A-class Guides were steadily increasing.

The justification was that they needed to pay them well to prevent losing high-rankers to other empires…

‘So are the lower ranks supposed to starve to death?’

“Oh, my head.”

What should I do from now on?

My head was throbbing with pain.

At that moment, someone entered my room without knocking.

I looked at the person.

Despite the late hour, there was only one person who would enter my room so rudely.